I thought I’d go my whole life without ever having to admit that Whitney Houston was right about anything. But that whole damn belief that “children are our future”, while a simplistic belief on the level on believing that oxygen is necessary to breathe, is a blatant truth. For all the ways they can be bothersome to us curmudgeons on planes or used as political tools to ban the things us adults enjoy, the world would be an awfully different place if one day they just ceased to exist. This is the premise behind the film adaptation of P.D. James’ sci-fi novel and in most cases it would be an afterthought to create some low-falutin’ tale about cloning or forgotten about once established as a film with only one idea. But director Alfonso Cuaron rides it out to the bitter end, creating a harsh mirror of our future with violence and some of the most purely exhilarating moments of cinema to be found in all of 2006.

If the film is prophetic in any way, then in just three years time a mysterious, unidentified plague has turned the world’s women infertile almost overnight. Miscarriages abound and a few years development gives us no more crying babies. By 2027, economies have collapsed and uprisings have turned everywhere but Britain into Hell – and they aren’t far away. The public mourns the death of the world’s youngest person as Theo Faron (Clive Owen) uncaringly uses it to his advantage; little things like being able to get coffee first and getting the day off from work. This is the new Theo; the one who has abandoned all hope in the world and would rather spend time with former political cartoonist, Jasper (Michael Caine), now living the high life with a room full of home-grown weed in as isolated home in the woods with his catatonic wife; the victim of tortures in the fascist regime the U.K. has become.

On his return trip, Theo is shoved into a van by a group known as the Fishes. Their leader is Julian Taylor (Julianne Moore) with whom along Theo was an activist in his youth and which led to a personal tragedy in their own lives. Julian monetarily seeks Theo’s help in securing travel papers. Refugees have been filing into the country as the last advertised safe haven (“The nations of Earth have collapsed. Only Britain still soldiers on”), but are met with cages and deportation if they are found out. The Fishes, including Julian’s second lieutenant, Luke (the always brilliant Chiwetel Ejiofor) are caring for one, or more appropriately two, as the young Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey) is pregnant. They hope to deliver her to the rumored existence of the Human Project, a floating organization determined to find a solution for the world to survive.

Discussing the political motivations and social moirés of the sides involved in this struggle would normally be enough to craft a fascinating bubble of ideas ready to pop inside the intellectuals who talk first and do never. Cuaron starts from the ground up though, almost effortlessly holding our attention from frame one for reasons you may not fully appreciate until a second viewing. So many stories about the future exist to dazzle first and razzle later if they find time. Much the reverse of Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later which presented us with an abandoned London, Cuaron’s future is populated to the hilt with grime, substance and only subtle ultramodern touches that create more than just a “in the future” vibe.

If the film’s opening scene strikes you in the cinematic gut that few directors can successfully navigate, it’s just a mere taste of what you never would have expected to become one of the most exhilarating action films on modern record. There are sequences in this film that we will be talking about for years and to spoil that experience is the dilemma us writers wrestle with cause, like any moviegoer should, we’re just dying to share it with you like a five year-old on a pixie stick jag. Cuaron and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki maneuver through these scenes like the offspring of the world’s steadiest documentarian and the greatest dance choreographer alive. If Lubezki fails to garner a nomination for his work on this film (for EVERY organization that honors cinematography), it will rank as one of the greatest injustices on cinema record.

If you haven’t bought a ticket yet, screw it, I’m just gonna keep going about the set pieces you’ll miss if you don’t. There’s an escape from terrorists that casts a whirlwind on the proceedings we’d never have expected and ends with one of the film’s great takedowns. (You’ll know the film’s best knockout punch when it happens.) There’s another sequence full of stealth and suspense that also finds room to reveal vital character information and haunt us into understanding how grave Kee’s situation actually is. Finally, there’s an climactic chase where I don’t even know where to begin – cause I can’t actually pinpoint the precise moment it begins other to say that by the time it’s decisively over, Orson Welles would have toasted it as a landmark of pure cinematic prowess. To even call these scenes set pieces almost do them injustice. Cuaron is not inserting them cause its time to wow the audience (a la a Die Hard or Pirates of the Caribbean). They are integrated and arise out of necessity for survival, unlike similar sequences in action fare that we take for granted and expect to see. Much like the children of the world.

Clive Owen is becoming one of those actors instantly capable of holding the screen and his performance here doesn’t need big speeches to accentuate his regression (or re-evolvement) into someone willing to care about lives other than his again and life in general. Michael Caine gets a few of those dialogue passages, but does so within the shell of such an amusing, closeted philanthropist that it provides depth instead a soapbox. Children of Men lays out the plight and carefully gives us just enough to make up our own minds about the apocalyptic wasteland exploited by those who see violence as the right; blinded by their own versions of politics and unalienable human rights. Or if you’re just one of those who can’t be bothered to make a difference, there’s still a cinema experience guaranteed to tweak your lungs and have you beginning a campaign to get everyone you know out to support it.